Washington, Oregon square off over salmon

Michael Milstein of The Oregonian had an interesting piece today discussing how Washington and Oregon are on different sides of the fence in long-running litigation over how imperiled salmon are faring at the hands of the federal hydropower system on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

This fancy new spillway weir to go on the Lower Monumental Dam was shown off last month near Portland by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Photo/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The enviros have been pretty consistently winning in the court of U.S. District Judge James Redden. One of his rulings — that the feds had used “sleight of hand” and violated the Endangered Species Act – was recently upheld by an appeals court.

The feds say they’re doing the best they can, for example installing fancy new spillway weirs to help salmon pass through the dams of death.

Milstein’s piece points out that while Oregon is on the side of the enviros, it doesn’t get nearly as much of the cheap hydropower juice as Washington, which, hmmm…. is on the side of the feds that are producing all that cheap power. Imagine that. This is a decision by Gov. Christine Gregoire, whose natural resources advisor, Bob Nichols, told Milstein: